Reinhard Leads Wawasee Over Valley In Sectional Semifinal
Posted
Mark Howe-mhowe@timesuniononline.com
LIGONIER – Fans of Wawasee High School’s boys basketball team can be forgiven if they thought “oh no, not again.” So many times this season, Warrior fans have seen their team go scoreless for several minutes at a time, and not being able to overcome the drought. Not this time. With the season on the line, seniors Gage Reinhard and Stori Bright gave their teammates just the relief they needed. After a six-minute dry spell left the Warriors down nine, Reinhard scored 22 of his 31 points after halftime and Bright collected 10 of his 12 rebounds in the final two quarters to lead Wawasee to a 50-39 sectional semifinal win over Tippecanoe Valley Friday night at West Noble High. Wawasee held an 8-4 lead six minutes into the game when Valley went on an 11-0 run over the last two minutes of the first quarter and the first 5-1/2 minutes of the second stanza. The Vikings led 21-14 at intermission, and Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowski said his team decided that’s not how they wanted its season to end. “We decided we were playing a little bit scared in the second quarter, when they went up on us and we were in a little foul trouble. I thought we got back on our heels a little bit,” said Wiktorowski. “We said ‘hey, if we’re going to lose tonight, let’s go out swinging.’ And so I thought we just played a lot more relaxed, a lot more aggressive. Our full-court defense got us going a little bit, and I thought our kids did a nice job of making it a little tougher for them to get into the lane. “And then, obviously, we started hitting some shots, especially Gage. He hit some big shots, got a few post-ups inside. And then our crowd got loud and gave us some extra energy. I thought it was a great second half for us. “(Bright) was such a huge factor here tonight, and that was another thing we talked about at halftime, that we weren’t happy with our rebounding, and he started crashing the boards. One of the big keys was we converted offensive rebounds into 20 points, You can shoot with confidence then because if you miss it there’s a good chance someone is going to get it and do something good with it.” Reinhard hit a trio of three-pointers, including two from the right side that banked off the backboard before dropping, and had 13 points in the quarter. He also made a pair of highlight reel steals, leaping to save balls heading out of bounds to add fuel to the fire. Reinhard’s spark wasn’t lost on Valley head coach Bill Patrick. “He banked in the two three-pointers, and when you have a night like that, obviously he didn’t intend to bank them, but when you’re that far off and it still goes in, you’re having one of those nights.” The Vikings found themselves limited by foul trouble, and Patrick said the rebounding margin in the final two quarters made the difference. “We got hurt when Alex Thacker got in foul trouble,” Patrick said. “We were right there in the game, and we had to sit him, it made a big difference. “We just didn’t respond in the third quarter. We weren’t as solid and we got outrebounded in the second half. We just got killed on the boards in the second half, something like 19-5, and the game was probably a little more physical than what we needed. They were a little more aggressive and probably stronger and a little more physical than we were in the second half, and that was the difference.” During the sectional, Wawasee has found the hot hand. It was Aaron Voirol who went for 23 in the sectional opener Tuesday, and Reinhard for 31 in the semifinals. “They do a nice job of that on their own,” Wiktorowski said. “They’re very unselfish, and they really have put winning ahead of everything, When they see whoever the hot man is, they really look to him. I’m really proud of them for doing that, and who knows who’ll be the hot man (tonight) but I have confidence that whoever it is, they’re going to find him.” The Vikings ended their season with a 14-9 record. Chandler O’Connor closed out his career with a 12-point game, and Thacker finished with nine. Wawasee also got eight points from Alex Clark, and Bright scored six. The Warriors improved to 13-11 with the victory, clinching a winning season for the first time since 2011. They’ll look to end a five-season sectional title drought at 7:30 p.m. tonight against NorthWood in an all-Northern Lakes Conference final.
WAWASEE 50, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 39 TV 7 14 10 8 – 39 WAW 8 6 21 15 – 50 Valley – Alex Thacker 3-8 2-2 9, Trevor Neeley 0-0 0-0 0, Jared Littlejohn 1-4 0-0 3, Chandler O’Connor 6-9 0-2 12, Alec Craig 2-2 0-0 5, Gavin Bussard 2-6 0-0 4, Neil Clampitt 2-8 1-2 4, Jarod Duzenbury 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Webster 0-0 0-0 0, Desean Heckman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-37 3-6 39. Wawasee – Aaron Voirol 1-8 1-2 3, Jeffrey Moore 0-2 0-0 0, Gage Reinhard 9-14 9-9 31, Jake Hutchinson 0-0 0-0 0, David Rocha 0-0 0-0 0, Jayce Boatwright 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Clark 2-9 2-4 8, Stori Bright 2-5 2-3 6, Aaron Beer 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 15-41 14-18 50. Three-pointers – Valley 4 (Thacker, Littlejohn, Craig, Clampitt), Wawasee 6 (Reinhard 4, Clark 2); Rebounds – Valley 20 (Bussard 4, Littlejohn 4), Wawasee 27 (Bright 12); Turnovers – Valley 12, Wawasee 8; Fouls – Valley 16, Wawasee 10; Fouled out – Thacker; Records – Valley 14-9, Wawasee 13-11 Second semifinal – NorthWood 66, Fairfield 59
